No Apples Or Pears This Year

Isn't it amazing how rain can act like a prism and distort the edges of a fragrant rose (making it appear more magical).

We have had such atypical weather all summer this year. More than having week after week of cloudy skies, the nights have been so cold, I've had to wear a sweatshirt and jeans all except for maybe 7 days this summer. Our apple, pear, cherry and peach trees are all barren with no fruit. Compare photos from last year's apple tree to this year's ... (click photos to enlarge them).

apple tree Sept. 2010

same apple tree Sept. 2009

We did not pick one single apple this year (there just weren't any)! Our raspberry bushes also have not produced much fruit. We did pick berries in June, but last year we had so many raspberries we were picking fruit long into October 2009.

Fortunately ... our flowers are still blooming.

Plants reaching up to collect the rain.

I've been creating special features and marked the four corners in our yard.

This is a patio plant that I keep in a pot. When it blooms, the most beautiful rust colored multi-petaled flowers appear.

More potted flowers.

Doug's garden gnomes.

Today was the first time I noticed the Hawthorn berries have appeared.

Only place I can grow carnations is in pots (thank to resident slugs who favor them).

Back yard roses have done remarkably well in spite of the rain. (That is if we can ignore the rust spots on their leaves.)

Shy little gnome playing peak-a-boo.

This is why I love pansies. Look at how they just spill over the edge of my very large flower pots.

The chickens are staying indoors on this rain-filled day.

None of our tomatoes have ripened this year either.

I planted these tomatoes up next to the house where they would get more radiating heat from the house. The tomato plants themselves looked incredibly healthy ... but the tomatoes never matured. I realize I could have cut the branches way back so the plant could send more energy to the fruit. (Learned I was allergic to tomatoes this year so I let the plant do what it wanted.)

Very few blueberries fully ripened at our house this year either.

Here's our pet Oscar, one week after he suffered a stroke. He's still pitching a little to his left but he's so much better now than he was last week when I called the vet and they said it would be most "humane" to put him down. While Oscar was barely moving for a few days, laying on his side, he was willing to eat clover that I carried to him and he still enjoyed being petted so I just watched and observed; made sure he was still drinking water. So now he's back on his feet, hopping to his food, eating the bok choi that I feed him. I didn't want to take a picture of him when he was all gnarled-looking (didn't want to remember him that way if he was going to die) but now that he's nearly recovered I wish I had those "before" photos.

Oscar. Brave stroke survivor.

May he live with us for many more years (he's about four years old now).